U.S. customs enforcement is kicking up a notch.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that it’s rolling out an “enhanced strategy” to counter illegal trade and “level the playing field” for the American textile industry, whose 500,000 jobs it says are “critical for our national security.”
Efforts include sharpening the screening of small, sub-$800 package shipments that fall under the hotly contested Section 321 de minimis exception, including expanded targeting, laboratory and isotopic testing and “focused enforcement operations” that could mean greater scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a critical modern-slavery-fighting tool from which they’ve been largely exempt due to the data they’re allowed to omit for customs review.
